How to write a memo

You need to write a memo to your boss or to employees and have no idea of how to do it and there are no proper memo writing examples on the Internet? Don't worry, TUKO.CO.KE has prepared an ultimate guide for you on how to write a business memo with detailed examples for a better understanding.

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I bet you already know that memos are a fantastic way to communicate important decisions or policy changes to your bosses or colleagues. And it is very important that your memo is qualitatively written, so take your time and diligently craft your memo, so that everyone to whom this message is addressed comes across how you want it to.

In case you don't know what a memo is -a memorandum or a memo is a kind of document used for inner communication between company employees or employees and employers. Memoranda are a time-tested facet of the business-world and when it is diligently written, help to keep the company's life run smoothly and successfully.

How to write a memo?

So, how to write a memo, especially if you are in a hurry? Here's a quick guide for you, if at all there is no time to read the detailed one described below.

Start with 1-paragraph introduction. The introduction has to clearly explain what is going on or what you want your employees/employers to do and why. Don't use so-called florid phrases, keep it simple and clean, so that everybody can understand your message.

Continue with a body that includes background information. Your next step has to be a proper body message, that contains background information and evidence that maintains the decision you are giving notice to other people. In case people have to take action, make it obvious to them what to do, how and when.

Friendly conclusion. May your memo conclude with a friendly summary that repeats your thoughts about why your proposal is a great idea.

In case this is enough, good luck with writing your memo. In case not, please continue reading and you will find out more clearly how to write a memo to your boss, how to write a business memo or a memo to your employees.

How to write a business memo?

Here you will find out how to write a business memo properly. Find out all you need to know about memo writing in this detailed guide with memo writing samples below.

Your first step and a piece of advice from us is to choose the right language style for your memo. Please try to avoid informal and slang language as you don't want to sound too informal in your message. Frankly speaking, your message has to be simple and clear for understanding, yet professional. Here's a memo writing format example, number 1 should not should not be used:

"Hey galz! What's up? Am here to tell you some important stuff! LOL." As you can see, this is absolutely inappropriate in the business world, and a memo like that won't be perceived seriously.

"The reason why I am writing to you is to introduce the new employees' policy discussed today between managers." Instead of informal greeting, go straight to the point.

Don't use emotional language. What does it mean? Well, try to sound more neutral in your memo message and avoid slang language. Do your best to include facts and proofs to support your idea. Here's an example:

"I think the whole company will be super happy if we had a free lunch for employees in our cafe".

Instead of this, try to make a research on the Internet or among your colleagues for example, that the atmosphere in the office will become better if the lunch is free. Cite that in your memo.

Source: Pixabay

Include signal phrases in your memorandum. If you are using citations or other sources, make sure that you are using phrases that help the readers understand what you are going to do.

For instance, try to include: "According to our research/debriefing,...", or "The survey, that was made by the Department of PR, has found out that...".

Write your memo with the help of a comfortable style, font and size. Use a classical font that is easy to read, and a proper size(11 or 12), maximum font size is 14 and it is a classical standard.

Use a classical font style, like Times New Roman or Calibri. Your memo is not a party invitation, and it is not the time to experiment with Comic Sans or similar. Your colleagues will simply make fun of your memorandum and won't take it seriously.

Make your memo with the help of standard margins. The classical margins are - 1-inch margins for business memorandums if you are using Microsoft Word. In case you are using other programs, there might be slightly different margins - 1.25 inches, for instance.

Continuing our memo writing format guide, your future memorandum has to be single-spaced. The classical version of a business memo is not double-spaced. If you want to keep your document page number down, however, leave spaces between different paragraphs or single sections.

Usually, there is no need to indent your paragraphs in the business memo.

Now you know about the memo writing format, what fonts, language, margins and fonts to use. But how about the writing process itself? Continue reading.

Decide how many people are going to get your business memorandum. In case you need to inform a couple of people, sending your memo is an excellent choice. You can send even one if you need to inform only one person.

There are also situations when it is more comfortable to speak about your memo idea directly.

Or, if the topic of your business memo is too sensitive to send it and make public.

Distinguish the purpose of your memo. Depending on your goal, the content of the memorandum can be changed. A huge amount of business memos are written for the reasons described below:

Idea/solution proposal. For instance, if you have an idea on how to improve the mood of employees in the office and would like to write your propositions in a memo format and share it with colleagues and headquarters.

In order to place commandment. For example, sharing your memo can be a comfortable way to assign responsibilities among your colleagues for an event, that your company is going to hold.

To highlight a report. With the help of the business memo, you are also free to highlight an event that is going to occur in the company among your colleagues or headquarters, give additional information or update on a project, provide the corporal research updates etc.

Narrow the information you are going to share. You might have a lot of interesting ideas or projects that you are currently working on and would like to share with your colleagues/headquarters. However, note that a business memo can be focused only on one issue.

Every business memo has to be concise, comfortable, and easy-to-read by the people who are mostly really busy. Therefore, your message has to inform only about the most important issues to make sure that it will be understood.

Find out who will be your readers. Spend some time to identify your audience and think what the people will think about the highlighted issues that you are going to share.

For instance, the style and information of an office beach party invitation will differ from the message to your headquarters about the results of your project.

Give a label to your future memo. As you might already know, the business correspondence has a great variety of different types. The classical standard of the business memo is to clearly title the document. For instance, write either "Memo" or "Memorandum" at the top of your future document.

Now, type the heading of your future business memo. First of all, type the classical four key informational fields at the top of the document. They are:

TO: type the names and initials of everyone who will receive your memo.

FROM: type your full name and job position.

DATE: type the current date including the year.

SUBJECT: type a short, however specific description of the topic of your memorandum.

Sometimes, the RE: line is also included, and describes the subject line.

Source: Pixabay

Choose your audience very carefully. Make sure that you are including all the people that need to know about the things that you want to inform. Limit your audience list just to those people that need to be informed.

Note that it is in bad taste to inform everyone about the issues that only a few people need to know.

Moreover, if you are writing memos everyday, quite soon people will become tired of your issues and won't pay attention to them.

Type only full names and appropriate titles when writing the people's names. Even if you and your boss, or other colleagues are best friends, it doesn't mean that you can type their names in an informal way. For instance, you can call your boss informally "Vicky" in the everyday life, but in your business memo you will have to call her "Ms.Smith" or "Dr.Smith".

Don't forget about this while typing the names of all your colleagues - type their full names or surnames and initials including business titles.

Make a research of the proper job titles, especially if you are writing an external business memo. Take some time to find out the proper title on the company's website, for example, if your recipient has a PhD it is a great idea to refer to them as Dr.

Write the subject line carefully. I bet you want your business memo subject line to be short, yet clear for understanding, and no too general. For instance, a subject title like "department changes" is too general, and in case someone has forgotten to read your e-mail memo and would like to read it a couple of days later, it would be difficult for them to pinpoint your memo.

Note that it is okay to skip the greeting part. However, it is up to you whether to include salutations like "Dear colleagues", or "Dear Mr. Ebulefu". Don't forget that the classical business memo doesn't require a greeting like that. You may ask, why? Well, a business memo is a quick method of communication in the business world, and it should be understandable to your audience who is receiving the message.

Write the introduction part of your business memo, where you should clearly explain the purpose of writing and sending the memo. Understandably compose your introduction with words like - "The purpose I am writing to you is...", and continue with a brief description of what you are going to propose.

Try to keep the introduction part as brief as you can. Don't try to include all you want to say, including evidence and facts in the intro part.

Now it is time to think about the body part of your business memo. Right after the intro part, a classical business memo contains a body part that includes two to four paragraphs before the conclusion part. However, the content and organization of your memorandum directly depends on the topic that you are highlighting. For instance, you can arrange the order of your body part from the most important issues to less important.

Think of including subheadings and titles in your memo. For a more clear message, you might want to include more understandable sections. It would be good to divide the memo into clear sections so that your readers can comfortably read and digest the given information.

Source: Pixabay

Include specific subheading titles. I bet you want the focus of your subheadings to be clear to your readers. For instance, you can type all the described subsections during the writing process - "New cafe for our everyday lunch", "The advantages of prices and menu of the new cafe" and "Location advantages of the new place for lunch".

Include sentences that describe the main point of the body paragraph or subsection. All individual paragraphs of the body part should tell the readers only one described idea.

Highlight the key points with the help of bullet points or list. By doing this, you are helping your readers to focus their attention on the most important points and read the memo quickly and efficiently. For example, you may want to highlight the advantages of the new cafe for lunch as folllows:

Low prices;

A wide range of meals, including vegetarian menu;

Located on the nearby street etc.

Keep it short. Usually, a business memo is no longer than a page or two. This common standard is for all memo documents that are single-spaced with spaces between sections.

You need a conclusion part. Frankly speaking, you are obliged to wrap up what you have just described in the business memo, especially if you want to keep it simple and brief. Moreover, if the information that you have given in your business memo is somehow complicated, it might be helpful for your readers to sum up all the key points from your message.

Even if you have decided not to include a summarizing paragraph, you are still obliged to conclude the message on a finishing note. Think about the following:

Do your readers and recipients have to do anything? Are you waiting for a response from anyone? If that is so, understandably state it in the end.

Or include a single concluding sentence, like - "I will be happy to discuss the described issues further" or "Please, contact me if you have any other questions".

Sign the business memo, if you want. You are not obliged to type your name or signature at the end of your message.Moreover, you can conclude it with one of the memo writing samples conclusions below:

Sign it formally, like "Kind regards, Mr. Smith".

Even if you decide not to put your signature in the end, you might type your initials at the end of the document.

Make a list of any attachments. In case you have mentioned any graphs, tables, reports or other sources, make sure to mention them at the end of the document. For instance, “Attached: Graph 1”. Don't forget to refer to the attachments included in your business memo.

And finally, don't forget to proofread your business memo carefully. Make sure that there are no grammartical mistakes, that all the words are written correctly, and there are no punctuation errors, and that the whole content makes sense. If you have enough time, leave your message for an hour or two, and proofread it again. I bet you will find new mistakes that you might have somehow overlooked while proofreading the first time. You can also ask your friend colleague to help you with proofreading the memo.

Hopefully, this guide will help you to write a perfect memo. Still have a question about how to write a memo to employees or how to write a memo to your boss? You can use the described above method for both these memos, as we have described the classical form of memorandums. In your memo to boss or employees, choose a formal style of language, classical business memo format e.t.c.

Source: Pixabay

Below you will find a simple example of a business memo that will help you during the writing process. Sample memo:

TO: All the employees of the Public Relations department.

FROM: Victoria Winters, Head of Public Relations department.

DATE: May 14, 2018.

SUBJECT: New cafe for collective lunch.

There is a suggestion from our colleagues to change the cafe where our department is having lunch during the week. As the prices in our old one have noticeably increased and there is vegetarian menu there anymore, I and my colleague; Mr. John Snow, the content manager of our PR department, have decided to find a new place for lunch.

There is a proposal to starting eating at a cafe called "Moodis" that is located along the nearby street. Below I would like to describe some advantages of "Moodis" that can convince you to support our proposal:

The prices are considerably lower than in our old one. Please, follow the link with the "Moodis" menu and see for yourself.

There is a separate menu for vegetarians and vegans, which is really important as some of our colleagues don't eat products of animal origin.

The new cafe is located on the nearby street from our office, and we won't have to spend our lunch time on transport.

The interior of the "Moodis" cafe is much more cleaner and modern than our old one, where according to our colleague from the accounting department; Peter Griffith, a cockroach has been noticed. Please have a look at the picture of this insect in a bowl of salad salad in the attachments.

As you can see, there are many advantages of the new cafe comparing to the old one. Please, if you agree with us, send a reply via e-mail to victoriaw@example.mail.com.

Thank you for your attention.

Kind regards,

Victoria Winters

So, as you can see, writing a memo is a quite simple thing to do, so don't be afraid to express your ideas to your colleagues and headquarters, especially if they can guarantee the improvement of everyday life in your company. Also, don't forget to save the sample that you have written for further business memos, so that you won't have any problems in the future when writing other memos. Whenever you need to write a memo in the future, simply change each field to suit the particular memo subject. Thus you will save time and have a ready-to-go template that will definitely attract the attention of your colleagues.

Source: Pixabay

If you are going to send your memo via email, think of a proper theme for your e-mail so that your colleagues will definitely open it and pay deserving attention. For example, using the same template that we were describing above, the theme of the e-mail should sound something like this: "New cafe for collective lunch proposal". As you can see, you can simply copy the subject of your business memo or think of a new one.

Hopefully, our ultimate guide and memo writing examples will help you to write a memorandum, that will definitely attract attention of your desired audience. In case you have questions or would like to share your opinion, you are welcomed to leave it in the comments section below.